Posted on 05/19/2016 6:59:59 AM PDT by Nachum
A recent competition hosted in part by the U.S. Army and designed to test core tank crew skills saw European crews take the top honors, while crews from the U.S. Army failed to place. The results raise the question of whether the Army—after more than a decade of focusing on guerrilla warfare—has devoted adequate training to address "big war" skills.
Held from May 10 to 12 and jointly hosted by the U.S. Army and the German Bundeswehr at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, the the Strong Europe Tank Challenge included challengers from six NATO countries: Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Slovenia—which sent tank platoons of four tanks each to compete— and the United States, which sent two platoons.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
How could you forget bringing in transvestites, that is much more important than any silly tank competition. Combat readiness is not that important anymore.
But they were oh, so tolerant and sensitive, don't you know...
Is there a “Top Gun” school for tankers?
Yes, at Fort Knox, Kentucky! In a virtual reality world and on the range.
sad, but true...
I read an article by somebody involved with a military “think-tank” (no pun intended) many years ago, and I do mean many years ago espousing tank warfare as antiquated, and that tanks were going the way of the dinosaur.
We still have tanks therefore we should be the best we can possibly be until we don’t.
Maybe we just sent the wrong crews, since National Guard tankers beat their Regular U.S. Army counterparts—and crews from the U.S. Marine Corps and Canadian Army—at the U.S. Army’s 2016 Sullivan Cup. The winning tank crew consisting of an insurance adjustor, Pepsi truck driver, college student, and aspiring police officer.
Well, to be fair to the US Army, it’s a little difficult loading a cannon while you’re wearing a dress and high heels.
In 1939, the Polish Cavalry was the finest cavalry in the world. But the Germans had developed tank warfare as the hammer for their blitzkrieg.
Perhaps drones and helicopters have now turned tank brigades into “Polish Cavalry”?
The M-1 has been proven in battle many times over. I'm not so sure about the Leopard although I know it is in the same class.
Who we sent:
U.S. Army’s 1st Platoon, D Company and 3rd Platoon, C Company both from 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
There is a limited amount of time, money, facilities and equipment for training.
You can use those resources training people to win a “game” in Germany, or you can use them to train Soldiers for war.
Depends on your priorities, I guess.
Seeing as how we are prepared for neither.
First, congratulations to the winners and every tank crew in this competition was a winner to just to get to it. It’s like an Olympics.
Second, back in the day when I was in the Army in Germany, we thought we were hot sh*t. But, were we surprised that our comrades in the National Guard, and the long haired, pot-smoking tank crews from the Netherlands, and conscripts from Germany could compete with us.
Third, wars aren’t won or lost based on individual tank crews, or individual aircraft crews, or whatever, although each man, each crew, and each combination of crew and weapon system makes his contribution. The proficiency of tank crews, number of tanks, their strategic and tactical mobility, combined arms, maintenance and supply, and the battle plan all are very important.
Regarding the Abrams, the M1A2 Abrams is on the big side as “main battle tanks” go, but the Leopard 2 is about the same size, and is similar in many other characteristics. The Abrams has only limited foreign buyers and among the few, one is now looking to order Leopard 2s. As I have seen cost estimate of $5 to 6 million apiece for each, I wonder what’s going on.
It will take skilled people to run those.
And it seems to me the armed forces are running that type of individual out the door.
Yeah, and they should have sent North Carolina National Guard tankers.
Meaningless. We actually very rarely win these intra-army competitions. At least the ones that only involve simulated combat with allies. But we’re pretty solid when it comes time to actually kill bad guys.
Obama must have sent his pajama boy tank crews.
My guess is that the crews have hardly any live-fire training.
It was the same at Ft. Hood when Clinton took over: instead of training, the crews were sent to mow lawns and pick up trash.
You can also thank the spineless Republicans who agreed to the sequester knowing Obama would use that as an excuse to gut the military.
Patton must be rolling over in his grave.
Puke.
Our tankers are the envy of the world. Not place my ass. Probably because they don’t care about a stupid “competition “.
All I care is in real battle, they kick ass with low losses.
Too many dumb articles on FR these days.
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